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The gunshots didn’t slow down, and I started to pace the roof. I wanted to ask for an update, but I also didn’t want to distract anyone. When I heard a howl cut short and turn into a snarl, I knew things were escalating.
A shot rang out much closer.
“Infected inside the fence,” someone yelled over the radio.
I grabbed our radio. “Barricade the hallways now!”
I couldn’t hear anything from the building below us over the growing sound of gunfire and ran to the roof’s edge to look down at the two guards stationed at the main entrance.
“I want you up here, covering the entrance,” I shouted.
The doctor had the ladder over the edge a moment later. I covered them as they climbed and got into position.
An infected turned the corner of the building a few beats later. One of the soldiers fired.
I left them and went to the other side of the building.
Infected were everywhere.
“Ladders up,” I said over the radio. “Don’t knock them down, or the infected will use them.”
One of the infected below stopped running and looked up at me. Then it cocked its head.
“You want me?” I said, narrowing my gaze. “How are you going to get me?”
Its head tipped forward, and I knew it was looking around. That sign of higher intelligence should have terrified me, but I didn’t let it. Instead, I watched, studying it as it searched for a way to reach the roof.
“That’s right,” I said. “No ladders. What are you going to do now?”
It went to a bar-covered window and used that to climb upward. It wasn’t tall enough to reach the next window ledge, though, so it jumped. Its fingers brushed the sill but didn’t grab on fast enough. I watched it fall to the ground. The impact should have stunned it. Instead of lying there for a moment to catch its breath, it stood and went right back to climbing up the window.
Another infected saw it, stopped running, and joined it at the window. When the first one was as high as it could go, the second one started to climb, grabbed the first one’s foot, and placed it on its decaying shoulder.
“Fuck,” I breathed as the second one leveraged the other one upward.
I waited until it had a firm hold on the second-story window sill.
“Hey, shithead,” I called.
When it tipped its head back, I put a bullet between its eyes. When it fell, it didn’t get up again. The second one looked up at me and moaned. I steadied my hand and shot again. It wasn’t as clean, but it did the job, and the second infected went down too.
“They collaborate?” the doctor asked from nearby.
Her expression was a mix of curiosity and fear.
“That’s what it looked like to me. Help me watch the other windows.”
Molev roared again, and the hound’s snarls turned positively feral.
Yelling broke out to the north, and I almost didn’t hear the doctor’s “Over here!”
The hound went quiet as I ran across the roof to find another infected trying to use the barred window. Only, this time, it was aiming for an outcropping on the building.
I shot it quickly and stayed there to ensure another one didn’t try the same thing.
“Hound’s down,” someone said over the radio.
“We need backup on Roof 5. They’re using each other like ladders,” came Katie’s disembodied voice.
